Parker Farms and Free Mulch

Tim, Susan and I went with Stephanie and Madeline to the KC Food Circle's "Local Food Expo" on Saturday. There were lots of CSAs and other local farmers there. CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture which generally means that you make a commitment to support a farmer throughout the year or growing season and they in turn give you a share of the harvest. We were part of one in Atlanta last summer and it was a really neat experience. I really enjoyed building a relationship with the people growing our food. It is also enables the farmers to maintain a more steady stream of income. They all work very differently - some you spend time at the farm and some you don't, some do only produce and others do more, some you pay by the week and others you pay all up front, etc, etc - find the one that works for you.

We hope to grow enough this year that we won't need to buy any or very little produce this summer - we'll see. We did however decide to join the CSA at Parker Farms that is solely meat (beef, chicken, lamb, hog and eggs). They are a family in Richmond, Missouri that raises everything organic and free-range themselves. We are splitting a share with Matthew, Stephanie and Madeline which should give us all a healthy amount of meat. I am really looking forward to knowing exactly where my meat came from and getting to go out to the farm a couple of times. We'll let you know how it goes!

While we were there, Tim sat in on a workshop by Food Not Lawns and learned a lot. One of the resources that they informed everyone about was free mulch offered by the city at the leaf and brush drop off site. We had been looking at mulch and weighing the impact that it has on the earth but finally a free, local, completely recycled option! We were still skeptical but sure enough when we showed up, this is what we found:


We put a tarp in the back of our car and loaded it up - we even came back a second time for more. I will post updated pictures of the garden this week.